Good-bye to all that

Although I do not officially retire until Saturday, January 1, 2011, today was my last day in the office. I went in at my usual time of 6:30 a.m. and by 10:00 a.m. I had completed my out-processing and good-byes. It was a strange feeling to be leaving the place where I have worked since February 1982.

Monday in Pittsburgh

Heinz Chapel at Pitt

View of Carnegie-Mellon from the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt

Carnegie-Mellon quad with Cathedral of Learning in the background.

October 11, 2o1o, that is. Such a long time ago, now! We left Cleveland fairly early and our GPS navigation system got us to the hotel -- a Holiday Inn located between Pitt and Carnegie-Mellon -- without too much trouble. We parked the car in the parking garage & never moved it again. It was still unseasonably warm, and the area was pretty hilly, too. So walking was pretty strenuous compared to the flat walks I have been used to lately. We ate lunch in the Carnegie-Mellon student center -- an all-you-can eat soup & salad bar, plus Jeff had some desserts. The food was very good and very reasonably priced. We sat in a room off to the side; it was nice & quiet, sort of like a faculty dining room, with few students. We walked about Carnegie-Mellon and back to the block at the edge of Pitt that contained the skyscraper Cathedral of Knowledge, the Stephen Foster memorial, and the Heinz Chapel. I decided not to pay the $3 to see the classrooms decked out in various international decorations, but we did go up to the top floor open to the public for the view. Then Jeff went back to the hotel room -- all tired out -- and I went to the Heinz Chapel, which had very beautiful stained glass windows in a medieval style. I also liked the exhibits in the Stephen Foster memorial, which also contained a theater. For dinner, we again decided not to go out and ate in the hotel dining room.

Sunday in Cleveland

Lake Erie, airfield, parking lot site of tailgating, from hotel parking garage roof.

Browns stadium, with part of the science center museum to the right.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Fans streaming past the R&R HOF to the stadium.

On Sunday -- 10/10/10 -- we left our wonderful Staybridge Suites in Elkhart, IN, and spend the day and night in Cleveland, OH. We chose to stay at the Doubletree downtown, as our main plan was to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. As we approached town, I suddenly wondered whether the Browns had a home game (oh, why had we not checked that in advance!?!) and, sure enough, they did. Fans all over the downtown area, decked out in orange and brown! But Washington has horrible traffic, and the NFL team has the worst traffic jams in the NFL, and we were early enough before the kickoff that we had not problem getting to the hotel, but snagged on of the last parking spots on the roof of the parking garage, which was also popular with football fans. The tailgating we observed in a nearby parking lot looked like an orange-and-brown carnival. We were hungry & didn't have a clue where to have lunch, so we ate in the hotel's small restaurant. We both wanted club sandwiches, so the waitress suggested we split one, as she said they were huge. They were -- half a sandwich was equal to one normal sandwich. That and half of the fries satisfied my hunger. Then we walked over to the HOF, along with the river of fans streaming towards the nearby stadium minutes before kickoff.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a beautiful building designed by I.M. Pei; it has been described as like a record player. The exhibits are mainly clothes (heavy on the stage costumes), instruments (heavy on the electric guitars), and other artifacts. Unless you are enthralled by seeing the items owned or used by performers, it is a less-than-thrilling experience. But I did enjoy the exhibits, especially the one on Bruce Springsteen. Yeah, I'm a fan of his, but how many pages of lyrics (original and blow-up copies), posters, guitars, clothes (Care to see the jeans and hat he wore on the cover of Born in the USA? They are there.), etc. of his do I really need to see? I did enjoy seeing video of early Springsteen (pre-E Street Band) performances and the early posters, etc. But the motorcycle he used in the early 1980s, not so interesting to me.

We then went back to our hotel room to watch the rest of the Browns game on TV (Jake Delhomme, late of the Carolina Panthers, was the QB). They lost. Oh, well. We watched the fans stream away from our window. We also were very tired, so splurged and got room service: another club sandwich with fries, a salad, and bread pudding to split between us.

It was fun to experience a Browns game vicariously, and to see the R&R HOF, even if it wasn't the most thrilling experience of my life.

Notre Dame Gameday

Team singing the alma mater after the game .

View of the students from our seat -- note the green "the shirt" of 2010 that 100% of the students and about 1/4 to 1/3 of the rest of the fans are wearing.

We went back to Notre Dame early on Saturday, October 9 (gameday against Pitt) to park fairly close to campus, and again walked around. We ate lunch at the south dining hall (our favorite place to eat on campus). The room is beautiful, like a refectory, and the food is very good for cafeteria food. It was so hot -- around 80 degrees at gametime of 3:30 -- that we spent quite a bit of time inside at the visitors center next to the bookstore, then went over to the stadium shortly before kickoff. Luckily, we were in the shade the whole time. Our seats were above the students, around the 10 yard line -- not too bad. The atmosphere was very different from last year -- much more lively and optimistic. And ND won!! All in all, a good day.

Notre Dame Football Friday

The view of Notre Dame stadium from the tunnel.
The view from our seats at the luncheon -- the black drape is where the players and coaches were interviewed, and you can see the video screens on the wall.
Outside and inside the Golden Dome.
The grotto.
Although Jeff & I went to a home Notre Dame football game last year (Navy beat ND), we had never been to the Friday activities of a football weekend. So this year we signed up for the Friday luncheon, which is held in the Joyce Center on campus. When I received our tickets for seats at table 110, I figured a lot of people would be there. And there were. With at least 150 tables seating 10 each, there were at least 1,500 in attendance. It was a plated meal with no choice of entree: a pasta salad at each place setting when we arrived, followed by the entree of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables. Also on each table were rolls & butter, a plate of dessert pastry squares (apple and cherry, take your pick), and pitchers of water and iced tea. The food was good. There was also a very popular cash bar. At our table were three folks who came together from NJ and the Wilkes-Barre, PA, area, and a party of 4 who also came together -- 2 teen-aged boys and their fathers. I can't remember where they were from.

The program was MCed by Digger Phelps. He spoke for a bit, then "interviewed" Golden Tate, who left school after the 2010 spring semester to enter the NFL draft and now plays for the Seattle Seahawks. They had a bye week so he was back on campus. He was followed by Kyle Rudolph, a current player. He was followed by the only assistant coach Brian Kelly kept from the Charlie Weis staff. Finally, head coach Brian Kelly arrived and was pitched some softball questions by Digger and three audience members picked from written questions submitted during the luncheon: a young girl who asked him his favorite ND football tradition, a young coach who asked him for advice for coaches just starting out, and a third question that I can't remember. The speakers sat in a living room setting and video was displayed on two large screens so that those of us in the back could see just fine. As Jeff and I discussed later, it was an interesting event but neither of us are enthralled by "coach speak" (just about as informative and interesting as "politician speak"), so we probably would not attend this event again.

But it was an absolutely beautiful day to visit the campus. Before lunch we walked around. After lunch we took the opportunity to walk through the tunnel into the stadium -- along with MANY other people -- just as the players do when they arrive. We then drove to nearby Elkhart, where we were staying at the Staybridge Suites (we had a very nice suite), and up into nearby Michigan a little bit, just to see the lay of the land. Very beautiful country.

Wauseon, Ohio

When Jeff & I made our first trip to South Bend three years ago, we chose Wauseon, Ohio, sight-unseen for our place to stop on the way. It is about 8 hours from home and 2 hours from South Bend -- a good place to break the drive and still get to Notre Dame early the next morning. We stay at the Holiday Inn Express just off the Ohio Turnpike and eat across the street at Smith's Restaurant. Great french fries. Also great pie for only $2.50 a slice, and they will warm your slice for you. So, this was our first stop on our trip to South Bend this year -- Wauseon, Ohio, on Thursday, October 7, 2010.

GI Bill NASCAR

OK. I didn't take this picture. It is a great shot I got from Yahoo (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta). But it does show the post-9/11 GI Bill NASCAR and our driver, Landon Cassill, outside the Department of Veterans Affairs building on Vermont Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC this morning. I didn't go to the 10:00 a.m. event, but the car was still there when I went out for lunch and I peered into it. The one thing I did notice: no lights. There are decals of lights where the headlights, taillights, etc., should be. And the car interior is totally different -- red metal pipe labelled "fuel line" running from back to front, fire extinguisher, and only one cage-like seat for the driver. I thought of Anne and her family down in Mooresville, NC, with many of the NASCAR racing team HQs. This car is for TRG Motorsports, which is based in Mooresville. "Our car" and Landon will be racing in Richmond, VA, this Saturday night in a nationally televised Sprint Cup race. Watch for #71!! This car is using half of the $1 million budgeted for GI Bill promotion.

Does GSA have a sense of humor?

I don't go down to the second floor employee break room very often. It is decorated with about a half-dozen framed motivational posters. I was suprised to see this one by the door earlier this year. Then, this week, it was gone -- replaced by a real motivational poster. I wonder who put it up, and who took it down. Sigh. I miss it. There is nothing like a chuckle when you really need it.

Poster available here: http://www.despair.com

Josie's Blanket

This is the blanket I sent to Josie with the sweater. It is done up in the colors Caroline chose for Josie's room. The pattern in the Moderne Baby Blanket in the Mason-Dixon knitting book (the first one). The pattern called for using Rowan's calmer yarn, but I ended up using mostly Vanna's Choice and other worsted weight acrylic yarns so I could get the colors I needed in a washable blanket. So the blanket came out substantially bigger than a baby blanket. I hope Josie likes the colors Caroline picked so that she can use the blanket for a long while. It is certainly big enough for her not to outgrow it!!

Josie's sweater

I got the nicest thank-you note recently from Caroline, Ryan, and Josie for the sweater and blanket I knitted for Josie. I got them done right around the time Josie was born, but didn't get them mailed until MUCH later. I deliberately made the sweater big, because Josie had been showered with presents for her birth and I wanted her to be able to wear the sweater for a little while. The pattern is the Baby Albert jacket (the baby version of the Einstein jacket) in The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville.

Snow Mystery Solved

When I returned home from Atlanta on Friday after missing the two 12"-plus snowstorms last week, I wondered who or what had cleared the snow from 3d Street as far as my driveway, but no farther. Yesterday, I heard engine noise and discovered the answer to that mystery.

Turns out that one of the men who are working on expanding a house across 3d street was using a Bobcat to move a mountain of snow from the other side of the street, dumping it by the side of my house. I was concerned that he might be dumping it on my boxwood bushes, which I'm sure are taking a beating under all the snow and would not be improved by dumping more snow and ice on them, so I went down to take a look.

When he saw me, he stopped his motor. I said I'd been away last week and when I returned and saw that half of the sidewalk had been covered by snow plowed from the street, I knew that I'd never be able to shovel it. He was very defensive, explaining that he had had to get to work last week. He added that he was moving a mountain of snow from in front of the driveway of the house next to the one that he was working on because they thought he had put the mountain of snow there. No, he explained, the county had already left half of the snow there. He didn't say who had put the rest of the snow there -- could it have been him? Why, he was just performing a neighborly gesture by taking a break from his workday to move the snow that he had not deposited in front of their driveway. He also immediately said that he would not dump any snow on my bushes.

As long as he wasn't going to bury my boxwoods further, and as long as I was not going to be able to dig out the sidewalk from the snow already plowed onto it from the street to make room for parking, there was no good reason to tell him to dump the accumulated snow in front of the house he was working on, rather than next to my house. I guess he had'd heard the pleas of the local governments for citizens to get out and clear the sidewalks. I feel guilty about leaving the piles of ice and snow on the stretch of sidewalk between my driveway and the corner, but I can't handle all that extra snow shoveling by hand, either. Sorry, Arlington.

The Snow of the Century

I missed our historic snowfalls last week -- the first a record-breaking snowfall itself, the second making the winter total higher than any year since they've been keeping records. Where was I? They sent me out on Friday rather than Sunday so that I could miss the snow and hold hearings all week in Atlanta (while the federal government remained closed all week except for Friday, which would have been my compressed work schedule day off). This is the way life can be, sometimes.

Springerle

My friend Trudy -- who is a wonderful baker -- brought to church yesterday some springerle that she and her sister had made. She gave me one with a knitter on it. My first thought was that I should varnish it, because it is so cute. But I think I will eat it with some tea when I need a little treat.

Cameron Indoor Stadium

Duke versus Clemson tonight. My nephew Michael will be covering the game. Duke is also celebrating the 70th anniversary of Cameron Indoor Stadium and the 50th anniversary of its first ACC championship team. Cameron and the Dean Dome down the road at UNC couldn't be more different, but I confess I have a soft spot for Cameron and fond memories of watching basketball games there while a law student in the pre-Coach K. days. It was where I developed a liking for college basketball.

Two More Cards

I started these two cards shortly after the last two, and finished them today, trying to get back into the mood to create. These again began with an ArtChix image, and I found the same butterfly in another ArtChix sheet. I picked up the colors from the original image and tried to use new attachments -- the Tim Holtz tiny stapler and HappyTape from Japan.